Day in the Life: We discover what Edinburgh's East Coast Cured owner, Susie Anderson, gets up to on an average day under lockdown.

We discover what the East Coast Cured owner gets up to on an average day under lockdown tier three.
Susie Anderson of East Coast CuredSusie Anderson of East Coast Cured
Susie Anderson of East Coast Cured

6am

I’m an early riser and enjoy being the first up. It gives me time to have a peaceful cup of tea, read the headlines and have a quick scan of emails and social media before our girls, Rowan (8) and Mirren (5) get up. If I’ve got a lot on that day, I set my alarm for earlier and give my attention to any payroll, accounting, HR or administrative jobs. The girls surface around 7am and I organise hot chocolates and breakfast.

8am

While I’m getting the girls off to school one of the East Coast Cured production team starts on the butchery. After the school run, I’ll head to the storeroom to prepare our online orders for posting. It’s been a difficult year, but we’ve been able to trade throughout the pandemic, turning what was primarily a wholesale business into a retail one. We’re continually adapting to the ever-changing rules under different levels of restrictions. That’s been particularly challenging for stock management. In terms of sales, when restrictions tightened we’d see a decrease in sales to hospitality but an increase in sales to retailers and consumers.

10am

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Nadia, who runs our shop, arrives to set up for the day ahead. Our curing room manager, Sorina, arrives too, and liaises with trade customers and organises stock.

11am

I head home to have a late breakfast and spend some time in the office. My first meal usually involves Company Bakery sourdough and Corrie Mains eggs in some form or another. My husband, Steven, and I try to eat together at home on most weekdays before he spends the afternoon and early evening in production plans.

1pm

My afternoons are for project work. This is the part of my job I enjoy most. It might involve some design work, a photo-shoot or a planning meeting for new products, social media campaigns or marketing.

3pm

The last-minute decision as to who picks the girls up from school depends on each of our workloads. We try not to work while the girls are around but given there’s no office space at our shop, it can be tricky.

6pm

The girls and I eat dinner together every night, sharing stories about our days. I’ve played a game with them since they were tiny where we all have to tell each other one good thing and one bad thing that happened that day. Steven gets home a bit later and we spend some time hanging out together before it’s time for the girls to go to bed.

8pm

Our bedtime routine consists of an episode of The Simpsons, hot chocolate, a story and bed. By this time I’m exhausted and either fall asleep while attempting to watch something with Steven, or with a book in hand.

East Coast Cured, 3 Restalrig Road Leith, eastcoastcured.com

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